# Check vs Everee

> Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Everee's 55.1 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Everee leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do payroll run. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-everee
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-everee.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-everee.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-everee.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Everee's 55.1 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Everee leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do payroll run.

- Check: grade B, 67.5/100, rank #208 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/check-payroll.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/check-payroll.json
- Everee: grade C, 55.1/100, rank #519 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/everee.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/everee.json

## Which one, for what

### Check (B)

Good for: A software platform that wants to sell US payroll inside its own product and can sign a partnership, with Check handling tax calculation, money movement and filings.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 67
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 56
- Security & auth, 74 against 43
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 46
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 56

Watch for: No public price and no self-serve signup. The documentation says to request an API key through Check's sales contact

### Everee (C)

Good for: A staffing, delivery or vertical software platform, or a single employer, that pushes hours and flat payments for W-2 and 1099 workers and lets admins approve in Everee's portal.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 87 against 80
- Payments & pricing, 10 against 5

Watch for: No preview or approval endpoint was found. Payments are approved by a payroll admin in the Everee portal, or automatically if Everee sets that up.


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Check | Everee | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 87 | Everee +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 67 | Check +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 56 | Check +27 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 43 | Check +31 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 5 | 10 | Everee +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 46 | Check +26 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 56 | Check +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67.5 · B** | **55.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Check | Everee |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Check Technologies, Inc. | Everee, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.checkhq.com` | `https://api.everee.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Check's terms of service and partner agreement. The MCP server and CLI on GitHub are MIT | Proprietary service under Everee's Terms and Conditions and Payroll & Payment Service Terms. No open-source client or SDK was found |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2021-09-03 | 2025-06-18 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-04-18 | 2025-01-03 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 18 stars | none |

## Verdicts

**Check.** Graded as embedded payroll through a partner API key, not access to an existing employer's payroll account. The API has idempotency keys on writes, a required preview before approval and queryable request logs. No price is public, a sandbox key comes through Check's sales team, and one API key carries the whole partner account.

**Everee.** Everee's API tokens are created in the admin portal of each company instance, and payments wait for a payroll admin's approval unless auto-approval is arranged. The API has no preview or approval endpoint, no single OpenAPI file, no SDK and no changelog, and a company instance starts with a sales call.

## Before you call either

### Check

1. Use https://sandbox.checkhq.com with the sandbox key and https://api.checkhq.com with the production key. A key is not valid across environments
2. Preview a payroll before approving it, then pass `preview_started_at` to POST /payrolls/{id}/approve so a stale preview fails with 409
3. Send `X-Idempotency-Key` on every write. Keys expire after 24 hours, so list the resource before retrying later than that
4. On 429 wait for `Retry-After`. The limit is 10 requests a second in sandbox and for partners paying fewer than 1,000 payees a month, with 100 concurrent requests
5. Connect the MCP server with `?read_only=true` or `X-MCP-Readonly: true` unless writes are intended. In production, approving a payroll moves money

### Everee

1. Send two headers on every call, `authorization: basic <token>` and `x-everee-tenant-id`. Base64-encode a token that starts with `sk_` first.
2. Derive each payable's `externalId` from stable data, never a timestamp or UUID, so a retried create is rejected instead of paying twice.
3. For contractors, call POST `/integration/v1/payables/payment-request` after all payable items are sent and before admins approve. Without it contractors aren't paid.
4. Send hourly wages through the Timesheets API, not Payables, and assign `workLocationId` so tax is worked out for the right jurisdiction.
5. Don't expect the API to move money alone. Tell the user a payroll admin must approve in the portal unless auto-approval is enabled, and read Everee's terms on automated access first.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Check or Everee?

Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Everee's 55.1 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Everee leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

### Do Check and Everee need an API key?

Check takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Everee needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Check and Everee without installing anything?

Yes. Check has a hosted endpoint at https://api.checkhq.com and Everee at https://api.everee.com.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-everee.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-everee.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "check-payroll", "b": "everee"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare check-payroll everee`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/check-payroll.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/everee.json

## Other comparisons with Check or Everee

- [Argyle vs Check](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-check-payroll.md)
- [Argyle vs Everee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-everee.md)
- [Check vs Finch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-finch.md)
- [Check vs Paychex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-paychex.md)
- [Everee vs Finch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/everee-vs-finch.md)
- [Everee vs Paychex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/everee-vs-paychex.md)
- [Check vs Employment Hero Payroll](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-employment-hero.md)
- [Check vs Gusto](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-gusto.md)
- [Check vs Salsa](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-salsa.md)
- [Check vs Zeal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-zeal.md)
- [Employment Hero Payroll vs Everee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/employment-hero-vs-everee.md)
- [Everee vs Gusto](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/everee-vs-gusto.md)
- [Everee vs Salsa](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/everee-vs-salsa.md)
- [Everee vs Zeal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/everee-vs-zeal.md)